Possessed by Strangers
by Hazulnutpower
Summary: Arthur had never considered ghosts or anything of the supernatural variety to be real. Now that he's finding they are, in fact, real, he can't quite say he's entirely surprised. Story behind "That Awkward Moment When your Best Friend is a Ghost Whisperer," because it was requested.
1. Chapter 1 (03-01 22:33:20)

Arthur scrubbed tiredly at his eyes. He hasn't slept in almost thirty hours, hadn't had a decent nights sleep in triple that, and he was exhausted, in both mind and body. The weird dreams - nightmares, more like - had kept him awake, and he was grouchy and irritable. He hadn't talked to anyone in a few days, ignoring even his father and Morgana, his half-sister.

In these dreams he saw a woman, her hair white with age and wrinkles lining her weathered face. She screamed and struggled uselessly against two faceless men, reaching out towards two figures. One was young, maybe nineteen, and he could feel the woman's unwavering love and desperate determination to get to her son. The taller and very obviously stronger of the two held the limp man against a wall, repeatedly smashed his fist into the man's stomach, chest, and face. He could see just beyond them a shadowed figure, standing calmly and exuding a professionally indifferent air. Arthur could feel the woman's hate for this man like a physical sheen on his skin, and she snarled and spit curses at him. He barked something sharply, and one of the men holding her grabbed her shoulder and slapped her harshly across the face. She, being old and more frail than she would want to admit, fell.

Her head cracked sharply on the ground, and the last thing she knew was blood pooling under her head like a tearstained pillow, and a none too gentle foot to her ribs.

Which brought Arthur to the present. He looked blearily around and noted a few things about the place he sat in. It was undoubtedly a doctors office, with a few motivational posters and a PhD on the wall that read "Dr. Augustus Wilson MD." The tan carpet and light green walls helped his drowsy state a bit, and he managed to get enough energy to pull his phone out of his back pocket to check the time. He growled softly to himself when he realized his appointment should have started five minutes ago, and he had yet to see the doctor.

Five more minutes passed and he decided to go check with the desk person. He didn't know what they were supposed to be called, and at the moment he didn't care. He shuffled to the desk and glared at the young man sitting at the desk.

"Do you know when the doctor's going to get out here?" he asked impatiently.

The man gave him a nervous compassionate look, and said, "I'm sure Dr.Gaius will be out in a minute or two. He was helping a patient-"

"Look-" he glanced at the nameplate on the desk, "Morris, I have not slept in a day and a half, and if I don't see the doctor immediately, I am going to blow a gasket and-"

"That's enough, friend." A voice startled him from behind, and he jumped a little, flushing at having been caught unawares. He hadn't even realized he had worked himself up to a shout.

Instead of doing the decent thing, he whirled around at the intruder and growled, "Do I know you?"

The man was definitely younger than Arthur, if only by a few years, but was a few inches taller. His black hair curled down his forehead and at the nape of his neck, and his startling blue eyes stood out from his pale face. He wore a blue shirt and and dark jeans, and had a chain glittering around his neck and disappearing underneath his shirt.

"I'm Merlin."

"So I don't know you."

"No."

"But you called me your 'friend.'"

Merlin's friendly smile dropped by centimeters. "My mistake."

"Yes, I think so." Arthur sneered.

"I could never be friends with such an ass."

Before Arthur could utter a no doubt equally scathing reply, a shorter man with longer white hair and a doctor's white coat bussled into the waiting room and called his name.

Arthur shot a glare at the lanky man behind him and turned to follow the doctor. Dr.Gaius led him to plain office, with both white floors and walls. Combine that with the doctor's generally white appearance, and it made Arthur slightly uncomfortable with all the sterileness.

"So," began Dr.Gaius, "what had you so concerned?"

He began telling Gaius all about how he couldn't sleep, and with a little prodding, reluctantly told him about the dream.

Gaius nodded once and said, "I know exactly what this is, Mr. Penn. I'm afraid you may have a bit of trouble believing me, however."

"At this point," Arthur said resignedly, rubbing both hands over his face to get a bit of the sleepiness out, "I'm willing to try anything."

Gaius nodded. "Well Mr.Penn, I'm afraid you have a spirit haunting you."

"A...spirit." he said sceptically.

"Yes, and I believe it is very vengeful, though not at you. Why it is attacking you and not whoever it is really angry at, I have no idea, but the problem is it wants you to suffer for what someone else did."

"Okay," said Arthur, still not completely buying the whole situation but willing to play along for now, "How do we get it to stop?"

"We don't." Gaius said, already turned away and shuffling a few papers, presumably his medical records. "I do, however, have a consultant for these kinds of things."

"You've dealt with something like this before?" Arthur said in surprise as Gaius shuffled to the door.

"Yes, and my consultant is quite possibly the best at what he does, so you'll not have to worry one bit."

And then he was gone, the door firmly shut. Arthur sat dumbly on the tissue paper covered plastic bed, fiddled with his phone for a second, then tossed it aside in favor of contemplating the sanity of this doctor and his "consultant."

He was considering leaving and finding a different doctor when the door opened to reveal Dr.Gaius and, of all people, Merlin.

"Arthur, this is my nephew Merlin. He can help you."

"You!" they exclaimed at the same time.

Gaius raised a surprisingly authoritative eyebrow at the sudden hostility between the two men. "It appears you've already met."

"You could say that." Merlin ground out, still glaring at Arthur.

Gaius rolled his eyes and gently pulled Merlin the rest of the way into the room, shutting the door behind him. An awkward silence fell over them before Gaius said, "Well?"

Merlin grimaced and sat on the bed next to Arthur. Arthur watched with narrowed eyes as he held out his hand.

"Give me your hand." he said quietly.

Arthur stood suddenly and said, "You know what-"

"Sit." Gaius commanded.

Arthur sat and gave Merlin his hand.

As soon as their skin touched, Merlin sucked in a breath and whipped his head up to look into Arthur's startled eyes. His blue irises seemed to be flecked with gold as he searched for something in his eyes. Apparently not finding it, he took his hand back and said shakily, "Yep, definitely a vengeful spirit. And a pretty powerful one too." He avoided Arthur's eyes, instead looking to Gaius. "I can get it off him pretty easily, but it's going to take a lot of his energy and he'll probably pass out after."

Gaius nodded and Arthur, annoyed at being talked about like he wasn't there, said haughtily, "So what do you have to do? Perform some weird ritual?"

"Nope." Merlin said. He seemed to have gotten over whatever had startled him, but he was looking at Arthur differently, with something like reverence and caution. "Just have to pull it off you."

"It's that easy?" he said suspiciously.

"Yeah. I could do it now, if you'd like."

Arthur bit his cheek and nodded. "Yeah, just let me make a few phone calls."

He stepped into the hall quickly to make the phone calls. First he called Leon, his friend and one of his father's most trusted employees. He told him where he was and what was going on. Leon took the strangeness in stride, something Arthur admired about him. Next he called his secretary, to cancel any plans he had that day if they hadn't been already, his sister to inform her of the situation, and finally his father. Uther Penn has none too happy to be interrupted during work, nor was he happy that Arthur hadn't been to work in two days, or the fact that he would be gone today and tomorrow as well. He finally hang up on his father's ranting and went back to the patient room. He doubted his father had even noticed.

"I'm ready." he said entering. Gaius gestured for him to lay on the bed, and he did so stiffly.

Merlin approached him and said, "Get ready. It won't hurt, but you'll definitely feel it."

Merlin reached his hands over Arthur's chest and curled long fingers slightly. A feeling, not painful but definitely unpleasant, swelled up from a place inside him he couldn't name. It felt like a suction cup being pulled off his very soul - or maybe velcro. A loud pop sounded in his ears, though it had the oddest sensation of coming from inside him, and the last thing he saw before his eyes slipped close, suddenly exhausted, was Merlin slumping into Gaius's waiting arms.

Arthur woke slowly, a terrible ache in his neck. He blinked up at the ceiling tiles for a few seconds before realizing he felt great. Better than he had in days. He was only slightly drowsy, a major improvement from when he had fallen asleep, and he suddenly felt lighter in more ways that one. He jumped up from the uncomfortable doctors bed and spun around to see Merlin slumped uncomfortably in one of the hard plastic chairs. He felt a rush of random affection and surprise that someone that he was so rude to had done something so nice for him. He grinned and quietly exited the room, finding Gaius in the front room of the small doctor's practice. It was dark outside, and the sign on the door claimed the building to be closed. He guessed it was around midnight.

He waved at Gaius and the old man smiled, genuinely relieved the other man was fine.

"How do you feel?" the doctor inquired, quickly filling out the mandatory reports and papers.

"Great, actually." he said with a smile. "Thank you." and he meant it.

Gaius chuckled. "I really had nothing to do with it. It was all Merlin."

"Speaking of him." Arthur said said, digging in his pocket. He pulled out his business card and handed it over. "Have him call me. I'd like to buy him a pint in appreciation."

Gaius looked pleasantly surprised and said, "I take it your little feud is over then?"

"It is in my book." Arthur grinned, payed the man, and left the shop. As he walked down the road to his car, he couldn't help feeling as if something was going to go right with this.

 **(A/N) Hello! I somehow found the motivation to write, so here it is! Took me three hours straight of typing, as it is definitely not one of my strong suites. Anyway, I'm hoping to make more of this au, though I don't know for sure when or if it will actually come out. I'm super proud of this one, so I hope you enjoy. Dialogue is yet another thing I'm not particularly good at.**


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur bit his tongue harshly as he entered his father's office building, which also happened to be his workplace. He was immediately bombarded with questions and congratulations, the former for his extended time off, the latter for his birthday. Yes, today was Arthur's birthday, and he was pissed. Not only was he back to work, but his father was entertaining a stony silence between them, both because he hadn't been to work in days and because he hadn't shown up to the meetings he was supposed to attend yesterday. He had told his assistant to cancel them the day before, but yet again the boy had 'forgotten.'

Arthur smiled pleasantly enough at the office works, ignored their questions, and slipped up the stairs to his own office.

He never had liked his birthday much. It had never...felt right, if that made sense. Like something was missing. When he was a kid, he would suffer through the birthday party, then go play videogames with Morgana until the sun went down. Later, after Morgana had moved out and he was alone in a big empty house with only his father for company, he lay and stare up at the ceiling. That's when he decided to move out early.

Then he had met Leon, and he'd spent every birthday with him. They quickly became work friends, and then regular friends as well, going out for a drink at least once a week, their schedules permitting. Leon had even saved his life once, pulling him out of the way of a drunk driver.

Arthur sat in his expensive leather computer chair, with his expensive shoes and tie, and wished desperately that he could have one more day off. He would have stayed in his apartment and watched movies all day. Instead, he got to work on his computer, sorting files and organizing events.

Not ten minutes into his work day, his phone rang. It startled him and he yanked it out to see an unfamiliar number. He had a sharp reprimand for the reporter on the other side of the phone ready when a familiar voice said, "Arthur?"

He grinned. "Merlin! I was hoping to hear from you. I wanted to thank you for helping me with my ghost problem."

"It was nothing, really." the other man said, obviously uncomfortable with the praise even through the phone. This just made Arthur grin more.

"No really, I insist. Why don't you come by my work and I'll take you for a drink?"

"Uh, sure?" Merlin confirmed, but he sounded unsure. Granted, they didn't know each other hardly at all, and hadn't gotten off to the best start, but Arthur couldn't seem to just let it go. He felt like leaving the other man alone would either end badly or not work at all. So he persisted.

"How about Milton's, down the road from the theater?"

"They're closed today." A few silent seconds passed until Merlin offered, "I have a friend that owns a pub down the road from Gaius's. We could go there, and probably get discounts."

"Sounds like a plan."

Arthur felt a weird sense of anticipation all through the rest of the day, waiting for his shift to end. He didn't get much work done, and mostly flipped between a few different tabs the whole time. Finally six o'clock arrived and he eagerly powered off his computer, grabbed his messenger bag with all his things already in it, and headed out the door.

He was halfway out the front doors when someone called him back. He turned to see Something Valiant. He hadn't bothered to learn his first name. The man worked closely with his father, and had known Arthur for years. They were never friendly, though their interactions never came to blows, as some had.

"Arthur!" the man smiled. His smile stretched his cheeks to far. Fake. "Here."

Valiant shoved a small green wrapped box into his hands. Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"You got me a present?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Open it!"

The man seemed overly excited about the present, so he cautiously ripped off the paper and opened the box. He was pleasantly surprised to see a gold watch, not the cheap kind, swaddled in tissue paper. Two twin green snakes blinked at him with ruby eyes from the face of the watch, the hands of the clock counting the hours.

"It's...nice." he admitted, and gently clipped it onto his wrist. He gave a mostly genuine grin at Valiant, who smiled back too widely and with far too much satisfaction, and then walked off.

Arthur left the building, his mood slightly dampened from the odd exchange and unfamiliar weight on his wrist. He shook it off as he spotted Merlin, leaning on a wall and looking boredly around.

"So," he said as soon as he was close enough, "Who's this friend that owns this bar?"

Merlin gave him a welcoming if shy grin. "His name's Gwaine. We take a business class together at my university.'

Arthur raised his eyebrows as they began walking. "You take a business class?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Well, yeah. No offence, but you don't really strike me as a business savvy person."

Merlin's grin took on a teasing note. "What, you suddenly know my entire life?"

Arthur smirked back at him. "I happen to be a very established business presence. Unlike you common people, I have been raised as a perfect example of perfection each and every employee should strive to be like."

Merlin took it as the taunt it was. "So us common people are nothing more than bugs on your windshield?"

Arthur nodded presumptuously, nose held high in an exaggeration of arrogance.

They shared playful banter as they walked the short way to Gaius's clinic, then pass it to the pub.

The Odd Club was a cozy little place, tucked into the space between two reasonably tall office buildings. The brick walls and tinted windows gave the quaint little place the exact feeling you would expect from a bar, comfort and caution at the same time. They entered to find the cliché red stools and stained glass overhead lights one would expect from a pub.

"Merlin!" a ruggedly handsome man yelled from behind a counter. "Been a while man!"

Gwaine, Arthur presumed, rounded the counter and embraced Merlin before turning to him with a grin.

"Whos your date, you rascal?" he cast a mischievous glance to Arthur.

Merlin rolled his eyes, apparently completely used to this kind of teasing. "He's not my date, Gwaine, and you know it."

Gwaine shrugged, still teasing. "Whatever you say, man. Now I don't know about you, but I want a drink."

"You always want a drink, Gwaine."

The man winked and swaggered back to the bar. "That's why I bought my own pub, mate."

They sat at the bar and Arthur was surprised he felt about as comfortable as he did around Merlin and Gwaine as he did around Leon. They drank and talked about random things that wouldn't make sense unless you were there.

At an hour after dark, Gwaine left them to close up the pub. It was nearly ten, and the warm summer air washed around Arthur as he and Merlin called their goodbyes to Gwaine. They were slightly tipsy, though Arthur would adamantly deny it, and they ambled down the street going nowhere in particular.

They had been walking for another hour and a half when Arthur's phone rang. Morgana's face appeared on the caller ID.

He pushed the button and shot Merlin a look, but the other man just nodded for him to go ahead. He put the phone to his ear.

"Arthur?" Morgana's voice was small and shaky, like she couldn't get enough breath.

"Morgana? What's wrong? You know it's almost midnight, right?"

"Oh thank God, I thought it would have killed you by now."

Naturally, this alarmed Arthur a bit.

"What? 'Gana, you're not making sense. Something's trying to kill me?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Merlin yank his head up.

"No, no, I just- I had a dream, and I needed to call you and make sure you were okay."

"Okay, well, I'm okay, alright? Nothing's wrong with me, so you don't have to worry about me."

They were approaching the stairs to the car lot where his car was parked. Merlin kept up easily enough with his long legs, casting him worried glances.

"Arthur, I need to know. Did you get a wristband today? Or maybe a watch?"

Arthur frowned. "Yeah, I did. How did you know?"

Her voice turned frantic. "Arthur, you have to take it off now. It's dangerous, _please_ Arthur, I watched you fall!" She was nearly sobbing into the phone then, and Arthur didn't hesitate when he wrapped his fingers around the watch, ready to take it off. They were halfway up the main steps now. The watch wouldn't come off. He frowned and pulled a little harder. Morgana was still whimpering into his ear. Merlin was slightly ahead of him. The watch stayed on.

He paused to tug it off but never got the chance. A strong force, almost like two hands on his shoulders, pulled him backwards. He wheeled his arms, trying to regain his balance, but couldn't. He started to fall, his head going towards the concrete, as infront of him, Merlin slowly turned around to look.

Arthur closed his eyes and waited for the impact. It never came. He slowly opened his eyes to see Merlin, his hand flung out and his eyes flaring gold. He didn't remember them doing that when they had first met.

He softly landed on the ground, his legs still on the stairs. It felt as though someone was clutching his shirt, slowly lowering him safely to the ground. His chest heaved with the adrenaline rushing through him, and he stared up at the ceiling of the car park dazedly.

Merlin landed on his knees hard when he flung himself down next to him.

"Are you okay?" Merlin sounded panicked. But why was he panicking, he didn't almost just fall to his death.

He took a deep breath. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh, my _God_." Arthur gasped out. Then he started to giggle hysterically. "Oh my God, I almost died. You just saved me for the second time in less than a week."

Merlin chuckled along with him, and when their crazed laughter finally died down Arthur said, "I should probably call my sister."

"Is that who you were talking to earlier?"

"Yeah. She actually told me this was gonna happen, but I was supposed to die. Then she freaked out when I told her about this watch that I got." He held up his hand for Merlin to see, but the watch was gone. Arthur sat up and glanced around, finding the expensive watch a few feet away. Merlin stood to get it, dusting off his knees.

When his fingers brushed it, however, he hissed and jumped back. "You've been _walking_ _around_ with that _thing_?!"

"What?" Arthur asked in confusion. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's possessed! I'm surprised I didn't realize earlier."

"What do you mean possessed? I got that as a gift."

"From who?"

"From a coworker."

"And you didn't think it was weird?"

Arthur scowled at him. "Of course I thought it was weird. But it's my birthday, so I didn't think much of it."

Merlin sighed exasperatedly and pinched his nose. "Of course it is." He rubbed a hand down his face and offered Arthur a hand.

"I can exorcise the ghost out of the watch if you want to keep it."

Arthur wrinkled his nose. "You go ahead and do that, but I don't want anything to do with that thing. I'm pretty sure the ghost in that thing is pissed as hell, and I don't want someone else to get ahold of it."

Merlin grinned sidelong at him. "Aw, showing a little compassion towards others now, are we?"

Arthur scoffed. "As if. I just don't want someone with less than half of a brain to get ahold of it and accidentally cause a massacre."

They headed back up the stairs, this time the watch wrapped in Merlin's jacket, and Arthur called Morgana to assure her he wasn't dead and/or dying. Then he got in his expensive car while Merlin got into his slightly dinghy Jeep. It suited him, Arthur decided.

As Arthur drove home, he reflected on his day. He had gotten a possessed birthday present from his father's coworker, made a friend, gotten to know another friend, comforted his sister over the phone as she freaked out, and then almost died, only to be saved by the man he was slowly considering to be a close friend.

And as Arthur drove home to his empty apartment, with it's expensive appliances and walls devoid of pictures or other personal touches, he got the feeling that his life was about to change in a major way.

 **(A/N) I know literally nothing about cars. Anyway, here's another chapter, for you people that actually like the stuff that comes out of my head!**


	3. Chapter 3 Part 1

The rest of Arthurs week went by fairly quickly. He had a few meetings to go to, though they were awkward for everyone because Uther still wouldn't talk directly to him. Even their business partners were starting to pick up on the issue between father and son, and it was hurting their image. Reporters were sure to find out soon enough.

Arthur currently sat in his office chair, sorting papers and packing to go home. It was late, maybe eleven oclock, and he was decidedly grumpy.

His office phone buzzed, and he snatched it up on the second ring.

What, Larry? he sighed into the phone.

Uh, its Barry, sir.

Yes yes. Get on with it. Arthur waved a hand, like shooing away a particularly annoying fly.

"Your father wants you to go down to the mail rooms in the basement and get some documents for him."

"What documents?"

A loud pop sounded sharply in Arthur's ear. He winced and pulled away.

"I dunno." the idiot on the other side of the phone said, chomping gum obnoxiously.

Arthur bit his cheek hard to keep from firing the man on the spot. "Find out." he snapped, and hung up. He really needed to find an assistant that wasn't a complete and utter wad.

Ten whole minutes later, long after he could have been gone, the phone buzzed again. "They're some documents for a new project he wants you to look at. He said you'd know it when you see it."

"Of course. Don't bother showing up tomorrow, you're fired."

Arthur unceremoniously hung up. He grabbed his bag, planning on getting the documents and leaving, and headed down towards the mail room in the basement.

The mail room was a dark dingy place that smelled like mold and mildew. The dull yellow walls were water stained, and the few hanging lightbulbs did little to chase away the darkness. Large shelves made rows throughout the entire room, cubbies for certain places and people in an order that anyone would have trouble navigating. Arthur had no idea how people could work down here and not go crazy as he precariously saved a stack of papers as tall as him from falling. He cursed the narrow aisles and dim lighting and finally found himself in the mail workers' office. The Head of Mail woman glared grumpily at him, blowing her nose into a tissue. Her cheeks were slightly red.

"Hi, I just came for-" before he could finish, she was shoving papers into his hands. He fumbled with them and stuttered out a thank you, but she had already dismissed him and turned back to sorting mail and writing things down. Her eyes were also red and puffy, and he couldnt shake the feeling she had been crying. He shuffled awkwardly, not knowing what to do. No one was around. The rest of the workers were all sick, some kind of flu that was going around.

He shuffled out the door and headed back towards the stairs that would take him out of the hole in the ground that was their mailroom, clutching the paper to him to make himself smaller and less likely to knock over something.

That exact thing ended up nearly happening when he was nearly to the stairs. He was wiggling in between a wall and a stack of papers that took up the whole of the hallway when he bumped into the papers. The papers tilted, and he just barely caught them in time. But now he was stuck. He couldn't move back or the papers would fall, and he couldn't lift them up because a glass jar had rolled where he needed to place the papers.

He cursed.

"Margaret?" he called for the Head of Mail to come and help him, but after a few moments with no reply he knew she couldn't hear him. He cursed again and dug out his phone with his non dominant hand. He fumbled with it, trying to reach the buttons and nearly dropping it a few heart-stopping times. Finally, he managed to hit the speed dial for Morgana's office, the room directly beside his, and hit the speaker.

"Hello, office of Ms. Morgana Penn, this is Gwen speaking." Morgana's assistant, a kindly faced young woman with almond skin and dark curly hair answered. She had been Morgana's assistant for almost as long as Morgana had worked in the building, longer than any assistant Arthur ever had.

"Gwen!" he said, slightly out of breath. A stack of papers taller than him was surprisingly heavy. "Could you send someone down to the mailroom? Preferably soon?"

"Uh, yeah of course...okay, someone is headed down to you from IT. Why didn't you call Barry?"

Arthur snorted. "I fired him. He decided it was more important to chew gum than do his work."

Gwen sighed, but she sounded more relieved than exasperated that the man was gone. "Arthur, your father is not going to be happy about this."

"Yes Gwen, I know. But until I can find an assistant that's actually reliable, he can-"

The door opened, letting in a tall, gruff looking man. He was one of the security people that Arthur usually didn't pay attention to unless they were in directly in his line of sight.

"Oh thank god." Arthur muttered and said goodbye to Gwen. The man was tall, with arms that bulged even through his thick security uniform.

"Quickly, please." Arthur grouched at the man. The man stooped down and scooped up the jar, setting it on a nearby shelf before helping Arthur set the papers up again. Arthur let out a sigh of relief as the weight was taken from his arms and he was relieved of the awkward position.

"Uh, thanks…?"

"Percival, sire."

Arthur blinked as a familiar warm feeling entered his chest. "Excuse me? What did you just say?"

"Sir?"

Arthur shook his head and drew his eyebrows together. "Of course. Alright, that's all I needed." He added bruskly. Percival nodded quietly and slipped back out the door.

"Wait!" Arthur surprised himself by saying. Percival ducked back through the door, eyebrows raised.

"Uh, y-you should come get a drink with some guys and I. We're all going down to a pub on Lakeshore, if you want…"

God, that sounded awkward even to Arthur. He felt his face flush with embarrassment and was about to flee when Percival's face lit up and he said, "I would love to."

Arthur gave him a time and address, and the big man was gone. Arthur slapped his face and wondered why he had to randomly invite people to drinks all the time. Lately, when certain people started to leave the room he was in, he would feel a brief rush of panic shoot through him, and he had to assure himself he would see them again. It happened with Gwen and Morgana, people he had known most of his life, as well as with people he hardly knew, like Merlin, Gaius, Gwaine, and now Percival. He rubbed his forehead and wondered what the hell was going on with him lately.

He jumped out, hand outstretched in a pose that felt both familiar and foreign, to catch the jar as it tilted off the shelf. He had only a second to register the weird instinctual movement caused by a movement barely in the corner of his eye before his entire arm went numb. The jar slipped through his limp fingers and fell to the floor, the glass thankfully not breaking. He gasped and clutched his arm in panic. He could feel it. He made a confused choking noise and flexed his fingers. They worked perfectly fine.

"What the…?" he murmured to himself as he reached down to pick up the glass again. His fingers again went numb, and though he had been expected it, he winced away.

Now that he looked closer at it, actually, its contents were...less than appetizing. There was a silver fork, a small red ball that could either be mercury or jello, and what he sincerely hoped was a plastic shrunken head, all in a reddish yellow liquid. His lips twisted in disgust and he reached into his bag, pulling out the sweater he had taken off that morning. He gingerly wrapped the jar in it, and though his hands tingled unpleasantly, it was nowhere near as bad as when that layer of much needed protection was absent.

As Arthur made his way upstairs, the jar safely tucked into his bag, he pulled out his phone.

"Hey Merlin, could you take a look at something for me…?"

 **(A/N) Yay! I suck at updating.**


	4. Chapter 3 Part 2

Merlin hummed as he looked through the murky liquid and glass at arthur, the rather disturbing contents sitting placidly in the bottom. The eyes of the shrunken head, though they were stitched shut, seemed to stare into Arthur's very soul, and made him decidedly uncomfortable.

"So what is it?" Arthur grumbled. He was grumpy.

"Well, it's definitely charmed. There's a really angry spirit attached to it, but I can't tell what kind."

"What do you mean 'what kind'?"

Merlin raised his eyebrows at his friend. "There are 3 main types of vengeful spirit. There's your run-of-the-mill vengeful spirit, the ones you see on tv that push stuff off shelves and possess people. There's a wraith, that are closer to demons than ghosts, so more violent. Then there's a plague maiden, that make people fall ill around it."

Arthur suddenly remembered how all the mailroom workers were out sick, and the Head was sniffing her head off.

"It's the last one." Arthur said decidedly, and told him his reasoning. Merlin nodded.

"Sounds like it, yeah."

"So how do we get rid of it? Do we have to destroy that?" Arthur asked, gesturing to the jar.

"No, this just limits her. Destroy this and she's free to reek havoc on anything and everything, at her full power. Something else is letting her manifest."

"So we need to find whatever this other thing is?"

"Yep." Merlin stood then as Gaius came bustling into the back room they were in with tea and a package of store bought cookies. Merlin nibbled on a cookie while Arthur immediately stuffed one in his mouth and grabbed another.

"So, how are we supposed to find this thing?"

"Well," Merlin said, finishing of his cookie. "I could probably detect it if I got close enough. Could we maybe get in after dark and look around?"

Arthur immediately shook his head. "The place gets locked down at 9pm sharp, and the only ones with a key are my father and the head of security. He doesn't even give Morgana and I a key."

Merlin pursed his lips, looking at him in a way that clearly said, "Then what are we going to do, ice brain?"

Arthur hummed in agreement. In the corner Gaius, who had been quiet thus far, said, "Why don't you hire him? You need an assistant, and Merlin needs to get out of the house."

Arthur had a moment to wonder how Gaius knew that while Merlin sputtered his denial. "That… actually might work. How did you know I was looking for an assistant?"

"I know your father well, Arthur. I have been a consultant for him longer than you've been alive. He has complained to me many times about how "difficult" you could be when it came to your assistants."

"Difficult, he says…" Arthur grumbled, but he was already thinking about it. He did need an assistant…

"Well, at least I can tolerate this idiot." Arthur said finally.

"What about after? Do I just stay your assistant forever?"

"Maybe not," Gaius admitted. "But it would certainly help you in finding out who is targeting Arthur."

"Targeting? What do you mean targeting? I'm not being targeted."

Gaius raised an impeccable eyebrow and Arthur could swear that eyebrow could intimidate even his father, the most stubborn man in the world. Arthur gulped and said, "Why do you think that?"

"You being haunted, you getting a cursed object, the person that gave you said cursed object mysteriously going missing hours later, and now a plague maiden? And all of this all of a sudden, with no warning beforehand whatsoever? It is a big coincidence, don't you think?"

Arthur had to admit, that did sound pretty unlikely.

"But why would someone be targeting me, of all people?" Arthur couldn't help but ask.

"It could be something around you that suddenly brought about these changes, but that wouldn't explain why these things are directly going after you."

"Maybe you did something that started it?" Merlin interjected.

"I don't know what it could have been." Arthur huffed, "and generally, I don't have time to worry about it right now if I want to get you on the employment roll by tomorrow."

"Seriously?" Merlin lamented his loss of free time.

"Why not? I need an assistant and you need a job. I expect you there at 8:30 sharp. And please wear something better than that." And with that, Arthur pulled out his phone and called Leon.

The next morning saw Arthur getting up at an ungodly hour, as per usual, and going to work. The plain office building, made almost entirely of tinted glass and steel, the grounds out front immaculately trimmed to perfection. A huge statue of a lion on it's back two paws, the front raised and ready to strike. The maw of the great beast gaped open wide, a silent roar that sent shivers down Arthur's spine every time he saw it.

His office was much the same. Very impersonal, a large leather chair, and a window that was dark even at noon.

Arthur threw his stuff on to a side table and sat in his chair to begin filling out papers.

An hour passed and the clock was nearing 8:40 when Merlin burst in, windswept, dressed in a rumpled dress shirt and black slacks. For pete's sake, he didn't even have a tie!

"Merlin! You are ten minutes late!" He seethed.

"I'm sorry! Gaius was hovering so I left late, then I missed the bus, then I-"

"Merlin, I don't care why you're late." Arthur threw up his hands and gestured to the door again. "Look, my sister's assistant offered to show you around out of the goodness of her heart, and I will not have you acting like an idiot around her. Now follow me." Arthur led them out of his office, to the elevator, and up a floor to Morgana's office and the floor she ran.

Morgana's floor looked a lot less dismal than most of the rest of the building. Her windows were not tinted, though he wasn't sure how that happened, and edged with drapes that changed often. Today the hall and areas surrounding were themed with a pastel green for spring, and fresh flowers sat in vases that sparkled. Arthur would be jealous if it didn't look so girly.

They passed offices as they followed the hallway, many with people inside. They turned a corner to see a short, amazingly clean mahogany desk, holding only a lamp and computer. Behind the desk sat a woman with a round face and almond skin. Her dark curly hair was pinned up and she wore a simple pink sweater and tan pants. There were little dots of silver in her ears, and she wore a necklace with a single bead that Arthur knew her brother, Elyan, had made for her when they were kids.

"Gwen." He said pleasantly as he strode up to greet her, completely forgetting his faux anger at his new assistant. "This is Merlin."

She stood with a grin, and Arthur felt his stomach squirm a little. He turned to distract himself by looking toward Merlin, only to see a strange look leaving his face. Before he could even think on it, the other man was grinning from ear to ear and stepped forward to shake Gwen's hand.

"Nice to meet you." He said just as she said, "Nice to finally meet you, Merlin." They stared at each other, before bursting into laughter.

Arthur, feeling like he had missed something, said, "Well, you two go off and do whatever assistants do. We'll meet during lunch and start looking around. Merlin, I already told Gwen everything that's been going on, so she's in on it."

Merlin nodded and shared another look with Gwen, who grinned wider and nudged him. He nudged her back and Arthur rolled his eyes. They were already friends. Of course they were, they were two of the nicest people he had ever met, though you'd never hear him admit it aloud.

Arthur, after a long period of work and not seeing any one for three hours, stood from his chair, stretched, and left his office for the break room. When he arrived, it was to see Merlin and Gwen chatting animatedly about something he had no idea about.

"Well?" he demanded.

"Oh, hi Arthur! Merlin was just telling me more about this whole situation."

"But I already told you all that." he said confusedly.

Gwen gave him a level look. "You told me that a ghost had haunted you and now someone might be targeting you, and some guy named Merlin was helping you out by coming into the office."

"Well, that's pretty much it!" Arthur said indignantly.

"You didn't tell me that Merlin was a psychic! Or that you had been attacked three times."

Arthur grumbled and sat down, glaring at Merlin, who was smirking as the older man got chewed out.

"Okay, what are we doing now?" Arthur said, dejectedly placing his head in his hands.

"Well," said Merlin. Gwen started unpacking her lunch, and handed a sandwich to Arthur and Merlin. Merlin took his without comment, and Arthur took his with confusion. She had made them both lunch?

"I thought, since Arthur found the first jar in the basement, we could look for the other jar on the roof."

"And what makes you think it would be up there? Or that its even another jar?" Arthur said skeptically.

"Well, this particular possesion needs an area mapped out, so the spirit can move between the two jars. It would make more sense to put it on the roof so the spirit could access all the floors instead of just one. And I know its a jar because the spell calls for opposites and similarities, so it will be a jar full of the opposite of the items that are in our jar."

"Fine. So what are we waiting for?"

Merlin's face adopted a wounded look. "I'm eating the amazing sandwich Gwen made me."

"Merlin."

"Alright, alright, prat."

"You can't call me that, I'm your boss!"

"I can't help it if it's true!"

 **(A/N) There will be three parts to this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and the next chapter is already started!**


	5. Chapter 3 Part 3

The group of three followed the stairs, narrowly dodging a security officer as they ducked out onto the roof. The weren't supposed to be there, even if Arthur was the boss's son.

"Alright, let's spread out and search. We're looking for a jar with something weird inside."

"Arthur, that is probably the worst idea you've ever had. Have you never seen a horror movie?"

"No." Arthur said resolutely, and trotted off to search. Merlin rolled his eyes and walked off to look around, leaving Gwen to go her own way.

Twenty minutes passed with no luck. Lunch had ended a while ago, and they were almost going to search elsewhere when Gwen stood up with a gasp and victoriously raised her prize to the heavens. It was wrapped in a cloth, protecting her fingers from the weird sensation.

Arthur whooped, but Merlin's eyes widened, and his face turned to horror.

"Gwen!" he screamed, flinging out a hand. Arthur looked up to see a shape in front of Gwen reaching out with a spectral hand and shoving it threw Gwen's chest. She spasmed, her eyes rolling in her head. She fell limply, and Arthur had just a moment to realize she was going over the edge when he was already halfway there. He heard Merlin behind him, hopefully dealing with the plague maiden, as he dashed to Guinevere's side. He caught her around the waist and hauled her up. Her face was slack, and she was completely unconscious. Arthur growled, laying her down on the ground and turning back to the spirit and Merlin.

Merlin was alone, slumped on the ground, breathing hard. The spirit was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did it go?" Arthur called to the other man.

"Banished it. It'll be back." he gasped, and stumbled over to them, falling to his knees by Gwen's side. He turned her head this way and that, then looked at her fingers. He frowned.

"What is it?" Arthur worried. Merlin showed him her fingernails then laid his hand on her forehead.

"I did some research. The employees that fell ill all had high fevers when they were found, and later it was found that their fingernails turned a greenish yellow." Sure enough, Gwen's fingernails were steadily turning color as he watched. "Many had to go to the hospital because their fevers got too high." his voice got quiet.

"Well then we should probably get her to Gaius while we figure out what's going on, and how to get rid of the spirit."

Merlin nodded, and they picked up the sleeping woman who had been talking to them only moments ago.

Arthur and Merlin sat in Gaius's office, reading over websites and looking through old tomes, respectively.

"So what's this thing called again?" Arthur grouched.

"A plague Maiden, with the _**duo hydria modum(1)."**_

"Alright, I found the due-oh hydra whatever, but nothing about Plague maidens."

"I've got plague maidens but no jars."

"I guess we're all set then."

"What does yours say?"

"The two jar method was originally created to- okay, history, blah blah blah, oh here. 'To dissipate a spirit that has been contained using this method, use the elemental opposite to destroy the jar and its contents. Be warned: The spirit will most likely attack due to previous instruction from the instigator of the spell.' "

"Okay, so we just need to use fire and wind to destroy these, and everything should be reversed."

"Seems that way." Arthur mused, staring at the two jars that sat on Gaius's table. The one he had found, likely a water element, would need to be destroyed with wind, however that works, and the one Gwen found, which Merlin said held grave dirt and a decaying finger, would need to be destroyed with fire, which sounded easy enough.

"So, when do we start?"

"Right now, preferably. We need to get away from any buildings or people, so I suggest the park down the road. Should be late enough now that no ones should be there."

Arthur nodded and they carried the two jars to the park. The sun was setting and a few people milled about, but most were home, where Arthur wished he was right now. The night was turning cold, the world not having shaken all of winter as they progressed into spring. Arthur pulled his jacket tighter and followed Merlin into a copse of trees where they would be hidden from outside view.

"So how do we do this?" Arthur asked Merlin skeptically.

"Well I can create a wind, then we just need a flame." he pulled a book of matches out of his pocket and tossed them to Arthur. "You're in charge of lighting that match."

"So how exactly are you going to create a wind?" Arthur wondered, fumbling with the matches until he had one ready.

"I'm gonna basically gonna summon a few friendly spirits that would be willing to help us, and their combined energies should be enough to manifest in the real world. Then I just have them spin in a circle really fast so they create a small cyclone, then we add fire, and I direct them over the jars so they get destroyed. The only thing after that is making sure we don't burn anything else."

"Oh great," Arthur rolled his eyes. "Let's just go to the park, with a bunch of trees, so we can burn something and just hope we don't accidentally kill something, probably us!"

"Well we could have done in the street, but I think people would notice."

"Whatever. Let's just start already."

Merlin nodded his assent and raised his arms. He squeezed his eyes shut as he started speaking a language that Arthur didn't recognize.

 _ **"Veni sancte spiritus auxilium pacificae!(2)"**_ Merlin shouted. His voice echoed meaningfully, but Arthur could see nothing different.

"Did it work?" he questioned.

"Oh! You can't see them. Come here." Arthur walked to Merlin, and Merlin put a hand on his shoulder and the other on his head. A weird tingling sensation, the complete opposite of the horrid sensation from the jars, flowed over his scalp and down his cheeks and neck, like warm sunlight on cold skin. He blinked a few times, and slowly forms materialized throughout the clearing.

Arthur gasped as people, semi-solid in form, drifted toward them. There were men, women, and even a few children. All were slightly tinged blue,their ghostly bodies exuding a faint white glow and a sense of peace.

Merlin again raised his hands, _ **"Lustrant per circuitum quocumque fortiter(3)!"**_

As Arthur watched, the dead began to dance. The ghostly children laughed, like faint echoes of joy in Arthur's ears. They swirled together, creating a wind that blew so strongly Arthur felt it pulling at his feet.

"Arthur! The match!" Merlin yelled, and Arthur struggled to get the match lit. Finally he got it with a little pop and a smell that burned his nose. The very air around him caught fire, though it never touched his skin. A few feet away he saw Merlin similarly unharmed, his eyes wide open now and blazing a brilliant gold. Arthur felt something deep in his chest at that, a weird twinge at the sight of those golden eyes as he stood in the middle of a blazing inferno. Something like awe, but also a deeply seeded sense of love and companionship and maybe even pride for the younger man that overpowered his senses for a moment. But he had no idea why, they had only met last week.

And just as the feeling had come, it was gone, leaving Arthur reeling. Then he got smacked to the ground as the plague maiden, who he hadn't seen arrive, hit him with an entire park bench.

Arthur lay gasping and confused, body aching something fierce. He glanced up only to see Merlin, unable to release his hold on the spirits lest he burn them all, as the maiden reached for his chest. Arthur reared up onto his feet and charged her, and he had a slow few moments of thinking he wouldn't make it before he was wading through gauzy skirts and slamming into a hollow torso. He passed through and a complete sense of wrongness ripped through him, then he was on the ground. He suddenly felt to hot, his chest heaving as he couldn't get enough air. The world swirled dizzyingly around him and his skin seemed to burn and itch at the same time. His stomach twisted and he heaved, spewing the last thing he had eaten onto the grass. He heard someone someone screaming and thought it might be him, except he couldn't get enough breath to whimper let alone scream. With the thought that he was definitely going to die tumbling through his suddenly aching head, his world went dark.

Arthur squeezed his eyes shut against the light filtering over his eyes. He grumbled and batted at the hand that was touching his forehead. He heard a familiar soft giggle and shot upright in surprise, nearly knocking heads with Gwen as she leaned over him.

"Gwen! You're alright!" he gasped.

She giggled into her hand. "Yes, thanks to you and Merlin."

Arthur's eyebrows drew together. "Where is the big-eared idiot? Last I saw he was about to get smacked by a ghost then burned alive."

Gwen grimaced, "He's out getting coffee. He said you'd want some when you woke up."

Arthur grumbled and made to stand up, but Gwen pushed him back down with a gentle hand on his shoulder. He shot her a questioning look and she said, "You've still got a bit of a fever. Best to rest a bit more."

"But you're completely fine so I should be too!" he pouted.

"Well she didn't dive bodily through a plague maiden." Merlin's voice came from the door, and it was only then that Arthur noticed they were in one of Gaius's patient rooms. Merlin handed Gwen a cup, probably a vanilla chai latte if Arthur knew Gwen at all. Then one for Arthur. He took a big whiff. It smelled like cinnamon, his favorite. He took a swig and found it was perfectly even, vanilla creamer with a dash of cinnamon. He nearly moaned in delight, but caught himself. He was so distracted by the amazing coffee that he forgot to question how Merlin know their favorite coffee's.

"Merlin, if you get me coffee this good everyday, you'll be getting a raise really soon." Merlin snorted.

"Wow, I've only been working for you for a day and I'm already getting a raise?"

"Nope, you've ruined it." Arthur shook his head, taking another long drink from his cup.

"Ungrateful…" Merlin sighed dramatically and plopped down in a chair.

"So what happened after I passed out?" Arthur asked.

Merlin rubbed a hand through his already messy hair. "Well, you dissipated the ghost, and I managed to destroy the jars, then I brought you back here."

"By yourself?" Arthur questioned skeptically, glancing at the other man's skinny frame.

"Yes, by myself. I'm stronger than I look." he pouted.

"Mm hm," Arthur grunted, but in reality he really did believe him.

Two-jar method

Come help, peaceful spirit

Swirl around forcefully

 **(A/N) Warning: Translations are definitely not correct because I just used google translate for all these. Feel free to correct my terrible latin!** **I can't bring myself to watch the last couple of episodes, so bear with me if there are some inaccuracies in the rest of this series. If you want to see me do a specific episode, let me know and I'll see what I can do! Otherwise I'm just going to continue through the series.**


	6. Chapter 4 Part 1

As most days seemed to be doing lately, Merlin's day didn't start out the best as he was late. Again. He had been working as Arthur's assistant only a little over a week, and he didn't think he was doing nearly a well enough job, especially compared to Gwen's cool confidence as she arranged meetings and things for Morgana, who he had still yet to meet. Sort of.

Actually, Gwen had been a huge help. He was really knew to the whole "managing" thing, and really had no idea what he was doing most of the time. Gwen was basically doing all the important work for him, as he did what she told him to do and not seem completely lost as to what was going on. Even Arthur, who was thicker than condensed molasses, kept constantly poking fun at him for it. He grumbled back at his boss and friend, but really couldn't bring himself to be that mad. Arthur was weird like that.

Which brought him back to the present. Merlin may not have known how to do most of the things that were required of him yet, but he could organise. And organise he did. Soon Arthur's messy stack of haphazardly strewn papers was neatly packed into seperate folders, all neatly labeled and stored in a filing cabinet Merlin didn't think Arthur knew he had. Sure enough, when Arthur saw his newly clean desk, he had no idea where anything had gone. Merlin showed him how to find what he needed, and after grumbling about how he had no idea how to work the thing, he had to admit to at least himself that it was much easier to find things when he didn't need to swim through his desk everytime.

After that was done, Merlin again had nothing. So he went in search of Gwen.

"Actually, Arthur and Morgana both have a meeting with Uther in about fifteen minutes. We're supposed to be there as well."

"Why? What are we supposed to do?"

Gwen shrugged. "Nothing really. Just sit quietly and maybe take some notes. Most of the time the meetings are just about boring stuff like budgets and Uther yelling at Arthur for something or other. Today though, I think they're meeting with a rival company to negotiate a collaboration, so we just need to stand respectfully and invisibly by the door and try to remember what's going on."

Merlin grimaced. He could already see this going badly.

Arthur entered the meeting room, Merlin trailing along behind him. Uther stood at the head of the table already, shaking hands with Bayard, the head of Mercia, one of their biggest competitors. Morgana was there, looking strangely pale and maybe even sickly. He pushed his worry to the back burner as his father turned toward him.

"Ah, Arthur! I was just telling Bayard here how promising your future could be with the help of his company." Uther smiled, apparently forgetting that he hadn't wanted to talk to Arthur for two and a half weeks.

Arthur smiled dutifully. "Gentlemen."

He made small talk, as was expected of him in these situations, as he watched Merlin watch Morgana out the corner of his eye. It was odd, but he figured Merlin caught on to how she didn't look very good. It wasn't as though it wasn't obvious. Gwen was looking concerned as well, and even Bayard's man looked as though he was waiting to catch her should she fall. The only ones who didn't seem to notice where Uther and Bayard himself, who had effectively cut Arthur out of the conversation and were now chatting animatedly about something. Arthur sat, as did Morgana, and the two older men eventually noticed and sat themselves. Merlin and Gwen stood by the door, their shoulders brushing.

"So, Bayard. I just want to be clear with what we both want out of this meeting, is that acceptable?"

Bayard nodded. "Of course. Please, continue."

Uther nodded back. "Today I personally would like to welcome you as not just a competitor, but also as someone I could work with for the good of both our companies. I suggest a collaboration of our two organizations for the betterment of society. Does this sound acceptable to you?"

Bayard nodded, and they shook. "I suggest a toast. It has become something of a tradition in my company to share a drink from our glasses for good luck. Would you do me the honor of joining?"

"Of course, my friend."

"God, just kiss already." Merlin murmured to Gwen. She had to bite back a surprised laugh.

Bayard gestured to a young woman, who brought over a case with four beautifully adorned cups. He removed three and another man holding a bottle of expensive wine poured some in each glass.

They clinked their cups and Arthur went to take a sip before the cup was smacked out of his hand. Merlin stood there, holding the cup while Gwen and Morgana held the other men's cups away from their lips.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Uther shouted, fury making his once-pleasant features turn sour.

"The cups are poisoned." Merlin proclaimed boldly.

"What!" thundered Bayard. "You were trying to poison me with the wine of yours?"

"He said the cups were the ones poisoned!"

Arthur glared at Merlin and demanded, "What are you doing?!"

"My job." he whispered back. Arthur's eyes widened. So this wasn't some random thing. There was danger in this room. That was the whole reason Merlin was working there, not specifically for the money, but to protect Arthur and the business.

Uther turned from his bickering with Bayard to glare frostily at Merlin. Said man winced under the harsh gaze. "You have a lot of nerve coming in here and interrupting an official business meeting. What are you, an intern? How did you even get in here?"

"He's my new assistant." Arthur said as he stood, standing unaffected against his father.

"Well, son I suggest you control your little thing here so I don't fire him myself." Uther didn't look away from Arthur. Merlin would have thought he'd completely forgotten about him if they hadn't been talking about him.

"If Merlin says the cups are poisoned, then they are." he defended.

Uther sneered. "Oh please, what would he even know of poisons? He is just some random intern-turned-assistant that believes he's more important than he really is."

"The cups contain the pedals of the Mortaeus flower, a lethal poison with small doses. Part of it holds the poison, and another holds the antidote. If ingested, the victim will suffer a high fever for several days before the body eventually burns itself out."

The blunt delivery of the horrific experience surprised everyone, including, so it seemed, Merlin.

"How do you know what poison it is?" Bayard"s eyes narrowed.

"Because there is no poison. This idiot has clearly interrupted us so the relationship we have built today would end, Bayard, let us get back to business." Uther interrupted.

"I'm not lying!" Merlin defended.

"Then drink!" Uther commanded. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "If the cups truly are poisoned, then we will be able to tell."

"Father, have you gone mad?" Arthur raged, standing from his seat. Everyone rose with him.

"Uther, maybe it wouldn't be the best idea-"

"Have I gone mad? No, but I would think that you have! First you start acting like an angry child, firing your assistant and leaving work for several days, then you hire this imbecile to replace the perfectly good one I found for you-" Arthur did not like the way his father referred to people as if they were toys "-and now this? I do not know what has gotten into you, but it ends here! If he doesn't drink it, maybe I ought to make you drink it." Uther then turned and shoved his cup into Merlin's hands and glared expectantly at him. Merlin hesitated only a second before giving Arthur a firm look.

"Merlin, don't you-" but his head was already tilted back, the wine raised to his lips. Arthur fairly growled as Gwen let out a horrified, "Merlin!"

When the cup was empty, Merlin's suddenly shaking hands lowered. And lowered. And lowered still as the rest of him made to go with them to the floor. Arthur caught him and stopped his dive towards the floor.

"Arthur." he choked around frozen lungs. "Gaius- antidote-"

Arthur did not need to be told twice.

 **(A/N) Hi! Have a chapter after who knows how long. It's so hard for me to sit down and just do it, y'know? Especially now that I'm working during the day for the summer,and I'm exhausted after. Two parts to this episode, by the way. Have an amazing day!**


	7. Chapter 4 Part 2

His breaths sawed harshly through his parted lips as he tried to control his fear. His assistant was lying in his arms, nearly frothing at the mouth after drinking poison so he could prove a point to his father. Said man was currently the only silent one in the room, his face frozen in shock at having been proven wrong. Everyone was in motion, either yelling or panicking.

Arthur shouted to the two guards outside the meeting room they were in, and the two men burst in with tasers drawn, expecting an enemy. One Arthur recognised as Percival, and the other a dark haired, almost shy looking man. The duo took one look at the situation, the two girls panicking in a corner, Uther on a state of shock, and Arthur holding a wreathing Merlin on the ground, and got to work. The dark haired man, who Arthur briefly read his name tag as "Lance A. L.," checked Merlin for a pulse, and seemingly satisfied, gestured for Percival to pick Merlin up. The big man did so easily.

It was then that the lights went out.

Several shrieks were heard throughout the building - most noticeably from Morgana - who went even more pale, if that was possible. Though no one saw this, as the late night and power cut effectively eliminated all sources of light.

Arthur cursed and fumbled for his phone in his pocket. He pulled it out as the air became unexplainably cold. His phone hissed and popped in his hand and he dropped it, shaking out his fingers. He heard several others do the same.

"He needs a hospital, sir." Lance said somewhere to his right. He turned to see Lance illuminated by the faint green glow of a glow stick. It wasn't much, but it gave Arthur a pivot point to find his way to the door.

With much fumbling and stumbling, he found the light switch and flicked it a few times to be certain. Nothing happened, and he lamented the loss of the ability to see.

A faint glow in the dark flowed gently past his ear. He startled, but the small light simply continued forward, illuminating the hallway toward the exit. He glanced behind him at the form of his assistant, still twitching faintly in Percivals arms.

"Follow me." he commanded behind him, and started after the strange light. Something caught his foot on his second step, and he stumbled. His ankle burned, like he had rubbed it against something that scratched him.

"What the hell?" he reeled away from it and caught a glimpse of something hairy and roughly the size of a terrier scuttle along the floor.

"What?" Lance questioned behind him, peering around him into the darkness.

"Spider." Arthur barely had time to squeak before something launched itself out of the darkness at him. With reflexes far faster than he would have expected from himself, he slapped the thing out of the air. Instead of eating the flesh from his face, the creature opened a gash along his palm.

"Run!" he yelled as they took off down the hallways. A giant black mass seemed to swallow the hallway behind them as they ran.

A very long, panicked, and stuffy elevator ride down twenty floors found the group in the lobby. They ran outside, and the second the last of them were out the front door, the lights inside clicked on. The receptionists at the front desk blinked dazedly back out at them.

"Over here!" Arthur shouted. He led them over to a company van, pulling out a ring of keys from his pocket. He easily found the correct key, and silently thanked Merlin for having labeled all his keys. He piled into the driver's seat, and four other doors thumped shut to mirror his own.

He glanced over in surprise to see Gwen in the passenger seat, Morgana in the back, and Percival and Lance in the very back. Lance was thumping Merlin's chest in CPR form. Arthur's heart shot into his throat and he tore out of the parking lot.

Gaius was just about to leave his office when a van screeched to a halt in front of his door. He raised his famous eyebrow at the gaggle of worried people that spilled out of doors, until his eyes landed on his nephew. He sucked in a worried breath and unlocked the door, leading the strangers and Arthur to the closest patient room, then disappeared to gather things he would need.

He flashed back to that morning. He was tidying up his apartment, clearing away breakfast dishes and sweeping the floor when Merlin ripped through the living room from his temporary room, grabbing a piece of toast from the plate Gaius had left him and left, yelling something about being late as he cut himself off halfway through by closing the door behind him.

Gaius shook his head fondly. Ever since Merlin had come to live with him a few years ago, his life had certainly been more interesting. He already felt as close to fatherly as he could for the boy without actually being his father. It was more than he had had at home, living only with his mother, grocery store paycheck to restaurant paycheck.

Hunith had worked two jobs since Merlin was born, providing for herself and her son by using the money to pay bills, and in her spare time did the sewing for most of the people in their apartment building to afford everything else.

Gaius shook his head fondly as he finished cleaning. He entered Merlin's room to at least pick things up so they didn't start to pile higher than they needed to, because lords know he wouldn't do it himself. He paused by Merlin's night stand, a note and a small bottle sitting a little too innocently on the surface.

Gaius picked up the little bottle and note confusedly. The bottle contained a plant he didn't recognize, so he opened the note.

 _Gaius-_ _Please take this bottle to the clinic with you today. You'll now what it's for later._ _-Merlin_

Gaius frowned but obediently stuck the bottle in his pocket. Better safe than sorry, right?

Gaius snatched up a small towel and the bottle Merlin had left that morning. The only thing that kept his actions from turning jerky and frantic was his years and years of medical practice in this exact kind of situation. He speedily shuffled back to the room that held his nephew and everyone else.

He prayed that this really was the intended use for the bottles contents as he fed the plant to the shaking boy laying on the cot.

"Did it work?" Arthur asked nervously, hovering a foot behind him while he worked. The two women in their group were taking turns wiping Merlin's forehead with the towel Gaius had brought. The two men wearing security uniforms stood uncertainty near the door, trying not to take up space the doctor might need.

Gaius pressed two fingers to a thready pulse.

"I'm not certain yet. We need to give it a few minutes to be sure."

The minutes went by slowly, and Gaius busied himself with attaching various monitors that would make his job easier in the long run.

It was while he fiddled with one of these monitors that the heart monitor flatlined. Gaius gave a small cry as he flung himself to his nephew's side. The dark haired guard was suddenly across from him, starting CPR as Gaius placed an oxygen mask over Merlin's mouth and nose.

"Merlin!" Arthur shouted from the end of the bed. They all crowded around, not in the way of the two but unwilling to leave the skinny, dark haired young man currently laying legally dead in a patient's cot.

"Come on!" the dark haired man shouted. Several tense minutes went by, as they tried to get Merlin's heart to restart.

A steady rhythm of beeps caused them all to sag in relief. Merlin's eyes opened a crack and he murmured in a voice thick and heavy with sleep.

"Gaius? You found the bottle?"

"I did, my boy. Now rest."

Merlin did not need to be told twice.

Merlin woke slowly. He was cognizant enough to recognize the white paneled ceiling and the scratchy blanket and place himself in Gaius's clinic; he was tempted to go back to sleep, knowing he was safe.

Eventually he drew up enough will to get up. Arthur sat asleep in a chair by his bed, Gaius quietly reading in the chair opposite. They shared a glance at Arthur and grinned.

"So I believe you owe me an explanation." Gaius raised an eyebrow disapprovingly at the young man. Merlin had the grace to grin apologetically.

"Sorry, Gaius. I didn't mean to scare you so bad, but this is one of those things I can't tell you." Yet.

Gaius relented with a sigh, easily giving up the topic. "What do you plan to tell Arthur?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's not going to be happy when he wakes. In fact I would guess he'll be very unhappy, so you should prepare yourself." The old man then stood with his book, nodded toward Arthur, and left the room while shaking his head.

Merlin glanced over to see Arthur slowly waking up, shifting around in the uncomfortable looking chair.

"Wakey wakey!" he sung to him, and Arthur opened his eyes to glare at him. His glare suddenly gained a razor edge and he sat up straight.

"Merlin, you idiot! You almost died for a stupid challenge! What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't?" he grinned.

"Of course you weren't!" he exploded, then seemed to lose his momentum and fell into a pout.

"Aw, Arthur, you do care."

Arthur looked him straight in the eyes. "Of course I care. You're my friend."

Merlin was stunned into an uncomfortable silence as Arthur stared hard at him.

"What did you do to your hand?"

"There were these giant spider things after you drank the poison. One of them tried to eat my face so I smacked it out of the air." He frowned at the other man, but didn't make any further comment.

"You got attacked by spiders?"

"Hey, they were huge! Not to mention they caught me by surprise. Giant spiders don't usually leap at my face in an office building, let alone exist."

Merlin hummed in acknowledgement.

"What, you don't believe me?"

"No, I believe you. I'm just curious as to what they actually were."

Arthur frowned. "I figured they were some kind of ghost thing."

Merlin snorted. "They could be a "ghost thing," but the closest thing to that I can think of is poltergeists - since they're the only ones strong enough to have a solid form - taking the shape of something to help them in their mission. But possibly dozens of them all taking the same shape? That's practically unheard of."

"So this is an anomaly inside the anomaly?"

"I'm surprised you know what that word means."

"Shut up Merlin, I'm not the one who's an idiot here."

"That's debatable."

"Merlin, I swear to whatever is holy in this world that I will destroy you with a snap of my fingers."

"Keep telling yourself that and maybe someday it might come true."

 **(A/N) Hello everyone! Welcome to the last part of this chapter. I am trying to not do parts anymore, which means longer chapters, but probably less updating. I started school and I have a TA period, so I'll hopefully get to write whenever I'm not sorting papers. Anyway, next chapter includes more Lancelot, for you people that love him so much. Remember people, have an awesome day!**


	8. Chapter 5

"Bye, Gwen!"

"Bye, Merlin!"

"What am I, part of the scenery?"

"You're pretty enough to be part of the scenery."

Merlin laughed aloud as he exited the office. Arthur and Gwen's constant flirting, then Arthur's denial of said flirting, coupled with Gwen's squealing over said flirting, was endearing but exhausting. He shook his head, still smiling, as he started down the street towards Gaius's house. He pulled out his phone and pulled up the internet, clicking back to a tab he already had up. It was a listing of available apartments in the area, as well as a few ads put up by people needing a roommate. He continued scrolling through them.

Honestly, he felt bad about making his uncle take care of him. Gaius didn't deserve to have to worry over him constantly, and he had already stayed way longer than he had meant to. He was supposed to have stayed with Gaius for a few weeks at most while he found a job and saved up money to rent an apartment, then those weeks had turned into months, then years. Now that he had a steady job, he thought it was time to give Gaius his house back.

He glanced up to check his surroundings. No one was around, and the night was getting very dark as sunset passed.

He was just passing Gaius's clinic when he heard a whisper. He turned to glance quickly behind him. Living in the city had taught him that it wasn't exactly a good idea to be outside at night, and not even for anything supernatural. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he turned back to walking forward, keeping an ear out for anything strange around him.

As he passed a weirdly dark alleyway, Merlin had only a moment to reel backwards enough to keep himself from being bitten in half. A massive shape leered over him suddenly, a twisted, beastial face, looming wings, and knife-like claws ripping deep gouges into the concrete. It's snarling mouth held bloody teeth, and a lolling tongue. Pink tinted saliva dripped from it's maw, and Merlin was nearly paralysed on his fear on the huge creature.

It raised one sharp tipped paw suddenly, and Merlin managed to roll away enough to only sacrifice in shirt sleeve instead of his entire arm. He gasped at the long but shallow slice from his bicep to the back of his wrist.

The beast snarled and crouched, preparing to leap at him, but a buzzing noise erupted to their side, and it was only due to definitely supernatural instinct and strength that the beast leapt back in time for a streak of blue ish lightning go streaking passed it. It yowled it's frustration, but quickly backed up and took off into the darkness.

Merlin whipped around to see none other than Lance A. Lot in a defensive crouch that was distinctly military, holding a discharged taser and a wild look in his eyes.

"What the hell was that?!" He cried disbelievingly.

"I'm not sure exactly." Merlin said, rubbing his arms. Chills were running up and down his arms, the sun having gone completely down and adrenaline still running rampant in his system.

Lance sputtered until he noticed the slice down Merlin's arm. His stuttering immediately stopped as he went into worry mode.

"Hey, let me patch that up for you."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll fix it when I get home."

Lance was planning to insist when Merlin interrupted with, "Hey, I never thanked you for helping me with the poisoned cup. Arthur said I probably wouldn't have survived the car ride to Gaius's if you hadn't been there. So, thanks."

"Oh, you're welcome." he said back, surprised.

"Well I'd better get going before I freeze." Merlin grinned and waved, turning to hurry away.

Lance waved back, and couldn't help but notice that Merlin held his sleeve closed particularly tightly around the wound.

He was probably just cold, Lance reasoned, and turned to continue to his own home for the night, a slight frown twisting his lips.

Arthur arrived at the office around eight o'clock, as he usually did. His coffee was waiting on Merlin's desk, along with Gwen's and Morgana's for Gwen to pick up eventually, as it usually was.

What wasn't as it usually was was Merlin. He wasn't in his rolling chair, as he often was in the mornings, and wasn't roaming around with a duster or broom, as he sometimes did.

No, he was doing none of these things. In fact, he was nowhere to be found. Arthur frowned. Obviously he had been there because their coffee were there, but wait. Something felt different. The room felt...cleaner. Almost brand new clean. He looked around suspiciously.

He startled to find a short man standing directly next to the door. The man was completely, unnervingly silent.

"How did you get in here?" He snapped.

The man raised something g to his face, what Arthur soon realized was Merlin's phone, and typed out something. A short ding came almost immediately and the man turned it around for Arthur to see.

Arthur: I couldn't come into work today. Sorry, but have to work something out. This is George. Don't tell anyone about him or they'll think you're crazy. He'll help you out for today. I'll be back tomorrow. Love, Merlin.

Arthur leaned back when he was finished and looked at the man before him. He looked for barely a second, but he could tell the man was very boring and therefore dismissed him, focusing instead on the text from his assistant. Really, the man couldn't even bother call in and tell him he wouldn't be at work today?

Arthur huffed, annoyed, and the door to his and Merlin's offices opened to reveal Gwen. She swept in, picked up the coffees, said hello to Arthur, and left. It took Arthur a moment to realize that not only had George not moved when the door opened, when Gwen came into the room, or when she left. He had simply let the door and the woman go directly through him. Gwen hadn't even seemed to notice his presence. Really, should he even be surprised anymore that Merlin had sent a ghost to be his assistant for the day?

Merlin spent the night, the day, and a large portion of the next night as well pouring over books and websites, summoning ghosts to get information from, and researching. Finally, at around four in the morning, he found it.

"A Griffin." He whispered to himself. He grinned and dialed a number on his phone.

Three rings later, a voice answered, "This is Lance."

"Hey Lance, I found it."

"You did?"

"Yep. I can track it and everything."

"Great, what are we waiting for?"

"We? I'm ready. Just come outside."

Merlin looked up to see the curtains of a certain apartment flicker. "You found where I live."

"I learned how to track something that technically doesn't exist. I think I can find out where you live."

"Alright, I'll be right out." They hung up, and true to his word, Lance trotted down the stairs not five minutes later.

"Okay, what do we need to do?" He got down to business.

"I'll track it, and you kill it. All you have to do is use your taser on it again, and I'll do the rest."

"That's it?"

"Yep."

"Then why didn't it work last time?"

Merlin crouched down as he replied, fiddling with something.

"Because I wasn't prepared then."

Lance narrowed his eyes as Merlin drew a chalk circle around them both.

"Prepared how?"

Merlin just grinned like the cheeky brat he is and closed his eyes. A few moments later, just when Lance was starting to grow concerned, his eyes snapped fiercely open, and he swore he saw the other man's eyes flare a brilliant gold before almost instantly fading back to blue. A shiver flew up his spine at the speed of light and a strange image of a glowing blue spear flew through his thoughts. He stumbled, just barely managing to stay inside the circle.

A weird darkness seemed to seep from an alley nearby. Merlin nudged him and he shook off the weird feeling, silently pulling out his taser.

The darkness crept up to the edge of their circle and stopped. It slowly surrounded them, stopping perfectly at the edges of the circle, until neither man could see more than a few feet away.

"We couldn't have done this someplace that wasn't right in front of my apartment?" Lance grumbled. Merlin snorted.

"Technically, yes."

Lance turned his head slightly to glare at him. "Did you track this thing or did you like it here."

"Do I need to answer that?" Lance sighed.

Suddenly he was pulled into a crouch. A gust of wind above them caused him to glance up as a godforsaken truck was thrown where their heads had been and into the darkness. A screaming crash and car alarms blaring confirmed that he was not seeing things and he had almost gotten his head almost taken off by a flying truck.

"There!" screamed Merlin, and army training instantly kicked in, making him whip around and fire accurately on nothing but instinct. The blue crackling of the taser's prongs disappeared into the darkness, stopping shortly and releasing 50,000 volts of electricity into the creature. It was like a light suddenly came on as the creature screamed and feel to the ground. It wreathed on the ground before it seemed to dissipate into the air.

Lance frowned. "That seemed really easy."

Merlin nodded. "It was easy, but that definitely forced it out of corporeality. Electricity destroys most spirits, that's why it tends to flicker around them. It's a defence technique."

Lance frowned, nodding. That made sense, but he wasn't paying it a lot of attention. His mind had gone back to the strange image of a glowing blue spear, and Merlin's golden eyes. He froze.

"Wait, when you did your ghosty thing earlier, were you just luring it here, nothing else?"

Merlin cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. "Yeah?"

"So you didn't actually do anything to fight it?"

"Not really, no"

"Merlin," he sighed exasperatedly, "if all we had to do was shoot it then why didn't we do that before?"

"Cause we didn't have a circle!" he said pointing down at the circle of chalk at their feet.

"I thought you were going to do something really cool and spirit-y, not just make me shoot it."

"You're the one that missed the first time and scared it away."

Lance threw up his hands and spun around. "I'm going back to bed. I'll see you at work tomorrow. Text me if you get attacked again."

Lance shook his head fondly as Merlin cackled behind him.

 **(A/N) I'm so proud of myself, this is closer to 2k words than any other chapter. I think the gap between this chapter and the last was longer, so sorry about that. Man, all I ever do in these things is apologize, huh? Woops. Anyway have an awesome day, and make sure you're on wifi!**


End file.
